"So rare that diehard fuzz junkies say you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than finding a physical 45 rpm single by one of the bands featured on their latest installment." -- Dangerous Minds

"A great distillation of what the underground was capable of back in the day, and still feels as fresh and poignant now." -- Clrvynt

A new single from the forthcoming edition of the popular compilation series featuring long-lost 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles, Brown Acid: The Fifth Trip, is available today alongside a feature on the anthology at Tiny Mix Tapes. Hear & share the rousing "Icky Bicky" by 70s Canadian rockers Flasher HERE (also YouTube and Bandcamp.)

The series, curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records recently received the pinnacle of endorsements: Lenny Kaye, creator of the legendary Nuggets compilation series (and guitarist in Patti Smith Band & Creem Magazine scribe), picked up his own copies of the previous editions, seen here via Instagram:

We’re back! And the hits just keep coming. For the fifth lysergic journey, we’ve assembled 10 heavy slabs of obscure rock the likes of which have never been seen before... not in this form anyhow. And as usual, the tracks from these impossibly rare records have all been fully cleared through the artists themselves. We’ve gone to great lengths to get the best possible master sources, the worst case scenario being an original 45. ‘Cuz it ain’t worth doing unless you do it right.

The legendary Captain Foam kicks off this Trip like an anvil to your skull with a rollicking stomper sounding like The Who with Matt Pike’s thunderous guitar tone. “No Reason” is a track we’ve been wanting to share with you boneheads since the start. Captain Foam (aka Richard Bertram) wasn’t easy to find, but lo and behold, our super sleuths located him and got his blessing to include the A-side of his sole single here for you. Good luck finding an original copy of the record. It’s rarer than raw beef.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The other nine tracks continue the onslaught in typical Brown Acid form. You may be familiar with George Brigman’s psychedelic punk masterpiece “Jungle Rot”, but you don’t know Split until you’ve heard the charmingly disjointed bedroom-fi production of “Blowin’ Smoke”. Finch sounds way out of time (1968) and place (Milwaukee) on the grungeadelic anthem “Nothing In The Sun”. Cybernaut’s heavy prog - giving their Canadian cohorts Rush a run for their money - and Flasher’s “Icky Bicky” boogie prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that our neighbors to the north can rock with the best of ‘em. Meanwhile, Fargo’s hallucinogenic BBQ sauce soaked “Abaddon” and Mammoth’s fittingly beefy eponymous riff-monger continue the long line of heavies from the Lone Star State. Ohio based screamers Lance features members of Inside Experience, whom you might recall from the Third Trip. Zebra’s gritty rendition of “Helter Skelter” is most likely the way Charles Manson heard the song in his head. And finally, the mysterious and previously unheard Thor appears here exclusively and for the first time ever with their unknown 45 track “Lick It”. Many thanks to our pal Mike Vegh for turning us on to this one.

About the Brown Acid series:

Some of the best thrills of the Internet music revolution is the ability to find extremely rare music with great ease. But even with such vast archives to draw from, quite a lot of great songs have gone undiscovered for nearly half a century -- particularly in genres that lacked hifalutin arty pretense. Previously, only the most extremely dedicated and passionate record collectors had the stamina and prowess to hunt down long forgotten wonders in dusty record bins -- often hoarding them in private collections, or selling at ridiculous collector's prices. Legendary compilations like Nuggets, Pebbles, ad nauseum, have exhausted the mines of early garage rock and proto-punk, keeping alive a large cross-section of underground ephemera. However, few have delved into and expertly archived the wealth of proto-metal, pre-stoner rock tracks collected on Brown Acid: The Fifth Trip.

Lance Barresi, co-owner of L.A./Chicago retailer Permanent Records has shown incredible persistence in tracking down a stellar collection of rare singles from the 60s and 70s for the growing compilation series. Partnered with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy Records, the two have assembled a selection of songs that's hard to believe have remained unheard for so long.

"I essentially go through hell and high water just to find these records," Barresi says. "Once I find a record worthy of tracking, I begin the (sometimes) extremely arduous process of contacting the band members and encouraging them to take part. Daniel and I agree that licensing all the tracks we're using for Brown Acid is best for everyone involved," rather than simply bootlegging the tracks. When all of the bands and labels haven't existed for 30-40 years or more, tracking down the creators gives all of these tunes a real second chance at success.

"There's a long list of songs that we'd love to include," Barresi says. "But we just can't track the bands down. I like the idea that Brown Acid is getting so much attention, so people might reach out to us."

Brown Acid: The Fifth Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on October 31st, 2017 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available for digital (with immediate download of the first single) at Bandcamp, physical pre-orders at RidingEasy Records.